Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition needs to be balanced, by...
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- Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition needs to be balanced, by...207 votes
- No it needs not to be balanced. It already is balanced!9.66%
- No it needs not to be balanced. It may be unbalanced, but overpowered abilities, spells, items (or any things that make it unbalanced) can just be ignored.12.56%
- No it needs not to be balanced. In fact it is meant to be unbalanced!23.19%
- ... mainly by nerfing down certain abilities, spells, items.8.21%
- ... mainly by changing the enemies instead: Make them more resitant against overpowered abilities, spells, items and more prone to weak ones!3.38%
- Balancing issues should be handled by modding. Let BG:EE be the way it is in this context. Any changes to items, abilities, spells, or enemies should be addressed by mods.22.22%
- I'd like BG:EE to be an one-to-one implemenation of the 2nd AD&D Rules. That would not only solve any issues concerning balance but enhance the game even further.9.18%
- I'd like BG:EE to be like a MMORPG. That would not only solve any issues concerning balance but enhance the game even further.0.48%
- I do not care.6.76%
- Other4.35%
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Comments
The game doesn't need to be balanced, because it is not supposed to be particularly balanced. This is not the same thing as saying it is supposed to be unbalanced.
Also, I think the very premise of this poll is biased toward the view that the game needs to be balanced.
Also towards claims that Baldur's Gate is anything close to Balanceable when D&D has never been.
I hate it when people try to push rules down my throat in a singleplayer game. Leave me be and if it annoys you too much then I suggest you go play a pvp game. There are loads of those out there.
Don't get me wrong... People should be allowed to have all the balancing they want from mods and what not because that leaves me with the option of ignoring it.
Now you could say that we could reverse it and have the superbalanced game be the standard game and I could be the one to download mods... To that I say that the original games weren't that balanced so why change direction now? And why put all that work into it that could be spent on squashing real bugs and/or new content?
Just my 2 cents.
They might be able to fix the R/C thing by adding the druid spells to the divine list as a ranger level perk (kind of like how the stalker's extra mage spells were handled), though separating the current spell progression might be a lot of work. That way Rangers lower then 8 wouldn't have any druid spells, and the at the highest levels, they'd only have spell casting up to lvl 3, as proper. If I knew more about modding I could possibly throw together a fix (only a novice at it though).
And the GM thing was fixed back in BG1, so..just figure out what in BG:EE and 2 is allowing it, and fix that as well.
And if you dig around in the files, some stuff like dex bonus to saves, wis bonus to saves, intelligence max castable spells are already in the game, they're simply not being used or enforced.
However, I don't like "balanced" games. I'll try to state why in a couple ways:
Because genuine, perfect "balance" implies my choices mean nothing. My choices mean nothing because any number of choices would be "equally effective" (i.e. the choices are "balanced" in their effects).
A game without meaningful choice, is not fun for me. "Meaningful choice" means I could make a horribly "wrong choice" -- and, ideally, have to "start over". True "balance" decreases the "wrong choices" available.
The idea of balance is to make the game enjoyable, if it's too easy, it's not a challenge, if it's too hard then its too frustrating. I think the game as it is is pretty much the same as vanilla, except the new classes which may impact the game to the point of being really easy as these classes wern't designed for BG1 to begin with.
As far as magics are concerned then yeah it's slightly OP, mainly because there's no real counter to magic in BG 1. No really big AOE spells to destroy your mages, just sit back and cast.
Of course some say you shouldn't be resting after an encounter so you don't have to do this and this, or some others say "challenge yourself by enforcing your own rules". But at the same time a player should feel like he can use his abilities.
In conclusion the game as is does seem a lot easier to vanilla. I'll write a review for BG:EE when i finish the playthrough
Paladin "Righteous Strike for 10 damage!"
Blackguard "Vile Strike for 10 damage!"
Ranger "Nature's Strike for 10 damage!"
That's balanced, lame, and boring.
The 2nd Edition rules were designed to that each class was unique. 3rd Edition really muddied things up and made classes more 'balanced' as everyone is on the same XP table, same amount of levels to gain, mostly the same skills/feats, much less restrictions. .... *yawn* I'm falling asleep just talking about it.
Edited for content.
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Voted for exclusive mod intervention. It's the only way I can see this being handled correctly. The modding community has a much more "close-to-the-metal" knowledge of the playerbase and their instincts are better tuned to handle (or ignore for that matter) any balancing issues that can be agreed upon by the community at large.
I voted for modders to handle perceived balance issues. But honestly, the opinion I will espouse most often is the second option, "If you don't like it, but you have the power to make it work the way you want through simple self-restraint (that qualifier is important), then shut up and just ignore it."
...But after you've shut up and ignored it, feel free to find or make a mod that "fixes" it. Have a field day. Making those sorts of changes is one of the biggest reasons we want the game to be so mod-friendly. So that one gets my vote.
I do feel that anyone taking my statement in any other vein then it was intended is being a bit pedantic, but I acknowledge that some people may be like that. So again, I apologize.
I wish the spells for Cleric / Ranger were more correct, yet it's still one of my favorite classes.
I think a few classes are just...kind of dumb / not really well thought out. And a few more need some better abilities to differentiate them from the pack. The rest are a variety but really unique and even if some are overpowered at lower levels the game kind of scales into BG2...
I will also admit that straight thieves kind of get the shaft the most throughout the game. There's not as much for them to do with their abilities other than recover treasure or back stab. If there were more illusions to dispel that'd be pretty wicked.
But these flaws have been in every version.
I also wish the AI for enemies was a bit better. And that some kind of taunting ability for aggro with a fighter would be great. But that kind of playing concept came in later RPG's.
A couple of challenges could be made harder for some particular kits/classes, just because some of them are really strong in BG.
A couple of extra items for extremely gimped classes, like the Monk, might be useful, though nothing utterly imbalanced.
Otherwise, things seem mostly sound.
I've always been of the mind that "if i find X, Z and Y to be to powerful" (be it, skills, spells, weapons or something else) i simply dont use them, or i abuse the crap out of them depending on my mood, i dont see the issue in a singel player where you have so much room to defeat your enemies.
And im pretty sure most of us have felt the need to feel overly powerful from time to time and demolish evrything ;-)
I'm more concerned with some classes/kits being underpowered than anything else.
I think it's cool that things are pretty lax here about profanity and whatever, and it seems to work in a community of this size. This is just a word of advice for anyone taking part in online discussions in general.
The berserker especially is OP....basically no penalty and a ridiculously powerful buff, when in PnP they're supposed to be restricted to leather armors, disdain ranged weapons entirely, their enrage only blocks fear, charm/dom, confusion, morale failure, and they have a 30% chance of going truly berserk when in enraged, attacking friends and enemies alike.
The swashbuckler current doesn't resemble the PnP incarnation at all.
Mage specialists don't have their proper benefits and penalties applied. Including barred schools (Most have 2, except divination which has 1, and Illusion which has 3).
Several other discrepancies.
As for ME, I'd choose this:
... mainly by changing the enemies instead: Make them more resitant against overpowered abilities, spells, items and more prone to weak ones!
But I guess I can use mods for it.
The main problem is that this would create a mess in multyplayer.
I would REALLY like to see a BG version that can satisfy all kind of players.
In other words: a utopia.
But I take it that this is a different type of board and am working on modifying my behavior accordingly. I certainly have no intent to offend anyone and, so long as someone isn't telling me that my opinion isn't welcome here, I intend to take any feedback as constructive and simply learn from it.
I would personally think that continued lobbying for someone to be banned even after a public apology would equally be a violation of terms as it is tantamount to Flaming. At minimum it is not respecting that poster and telling them that their opinion is not welcome. And it definitely boarders on Trolling. Just a thought.
At the same time I want my cake and eat it too in making meaningful choices. But I want it to be like water colors or oil paint where I can make two paths work, but I gotta have skill either way. I think to varying degrees this inevitably happens, but there are dissatisfying patches such as goodberries. I guess I am more a fan of making everything useful in some situation. On normal difficulty as opposed to insane there should be a rational reason to use goodberries. (just my example I don't really care about goodberries)
In some instances I laugh at the illusion of choices. Like titan quest where a buzzillion cracked, white, and yellow items drop and my character only ever picks up even greens or purples. This problem is avoided of course in BG1 by placed loot, but I am just commenting on illusions of choices. Like having a spell that makes a flash of light and does nothing at all just to have 'choices'.
This is, thankfully, mainly a singleplayer game